Targeting unfit communities
Demo Day features a variety of Pittsburgh startups designed to help underserved markets
It was close to nightfall in Chicago when Ellen McDevitt Saksen decided to take a run through the neighborhood near her hotel. This was not her first business trip spent alone, and she knew many women were often harassed while on the road — up to 32 percent reported sexual harassment while traveling, she said at Wednesday’s Alphalab and Alphalab Gear Demo Day in Munhall.
“I waste so much time and emotional bandwidth dealing with this stuff,” Ms. Saksen said. “Our productivity takes a nosedive when dealing with sexual assault.”
So Ms. Saksen and her sister created an app to change that — Amelia, a businesswoman’s community that allows like-minded travelers to connect in real-time.
Usinga proprietary algorithm, Amelia aims to connect the 50 million women who take business trips each year, based on their mutual LinkedIn connections, interests and their geographical location.
This year’s Demo Day, held in the Carnegie Library Music Hall in Munhall, featured a generation of Pittsburgh startups focused on under served communities, building commercial traction under the guidance of the Alpha lab and Alpha lab Gear business accelerator sin East Liberty.
Demo Day, a sort of graduation ceremony celebrating the accelerators’ latest class of hardware and software startups, featured 12 presentations this year.
Each early-stage company had the opportunity to explain its product, its market fit and revenue model. While not directly intended as a funding event, Demo Day typically attracts potential partnersand investors.
Zaabox, a luxury bath and body subscription service for black women, aims to deliver the best of “luxurious black-owned spa and bath products” to those who may not otherwise access suchgoods.
Black women spend $17 billion on beauty products annually, said founder and CEO Terence Strong. Since Zaabox controls all elements of the supply chain in this subscription package, it can out serve competitors.
One set, “Lovely Lavender,” featured a creamy wash, massage and after-bath oil, body and hair wash, bath salts and a package of Phillip Ashley chocolates. Each product was created by black artisans and tucked inside
massage and after-bath oil, body and hair wash, bath salts and a package of Phillip Ashley chocolates. Each product was created by black artisans and tucked insidea shiny, golden box.
Mr. Strong cited a 95 percent retention rate in subscribers, who pay $40 for a monthlypackage.
At Demo Day, Felicia Lane Savage, the founder of Pittsburgh’s Yoga Roots on Location, said Zaabox made her feel “empowered as a blackwoman.”
In areas like Homewood, Larimer and the Hill District, Christian Hughes is empoweringsmall business development through his startup,Nside-Out Spaces.
Nside-Out Spaces manufactures and sells scalable, multipurpose spaces in communities where development may be slow. The twist: they’re designed in recycled shipping containers.
At $60-per-square foot, Mr. Hughes offers indooroutdoor options for pop-up retail shops in the city, spurringeconomic development and assisting small businesses.
That’s useful in Pittsburgh because there’s a high survival rate for small businesses — 53.78 percent of businesses make it in theirfirst five years, according to a Main Street Entrepreneurship Index compiled by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in KansasCity, Mo.
Others in the 2017 Demo Day class include: Adrich, which creates smart product labels; ArinTechnologies, which enables indoor location tracking; BlastPoint, a data startup; HVAC efficiency startup HiberSense; bike-safety app LaneSpotter; Lift Link, a fitness center data analytics platform; adaptable housing startup Module; mixedreality STEM education company NoRilla; and an intelligent Wi-Fi platform called Qlicket.